Apparently Abel Ferrara has a long overdue house payment to make, because he’s currently directing a (sure to be direct-to-DVD) action movie starring Wesley Snipes called “Game of Death”. The film has Snipes playing a politician’s bodyguard who discovers the truth behind his mission, even as he tries to to stop the world’s top five assassins from killing his boss.

I’ll admit that I’m not an expert on Abel Ferrara or his filmography, but aside from “King of New York” in 1990 (which also co-starred Snipes as a cop trying to bring down Christopher Walken’s drug dealing kingpin), I don’t think he’s actually ever directed a straight-up action movie like this before. Nicolas Chartier of Voltage Pictures calls “Game of Death” a “very edgy and exciting action film”, but we’ll just have to see if it diverts significantly, if any, from Snipes’ recent spate of bland, generic action movies. You know, the kind where it wouldn’t matter if Snipes was the lead, or Seagal, or the other 50 former action stars currently making a living slaving away on 5 direct-to-DVD action movies a year in Eastern Europe.

You gotta figure Wesley Snipes is pretty excited about this. Normally the guy is starring in action movies shot in Bulgaria or Romania and being directed by guys whose names he can’t even pronounce. Plus, after that whole tax evasion beef, working in the States again is probably a step up for him.